Simple Perfect Enchiladas

She is the pioneer woman

You went from high heels to tractor wheels, right, Rie? That's right, that's right

She is in the kitchen with us today, and her life went from like A to Z, didn't it

It really did. A to Z. You now live on a ranch

Yes, I grew up on a golf course, and now I live among manure, so..

Can I say that on your show, Paula? Yes, you can. I like today's recipe that you're going to share with us

It's simple, perfect enchiladas. Yes. And I'm putty in your hands, baby

Put me to work. I don't have Paula Deen as putty in my hands very often

So, all right. A little olive oil in here, Rhi. Just a little bit, and then we're just going to brown the onions with some ground beef

Okay. This is just a delicious, simple enchilada recipe. My mom used to make it

I actually had a Mexican great uncle. He shared this recipe with my mom quite a while ago, and she used to make this

There's nothing fancy about it, but it's good stuff. We're going to throw in a pound of ground beef

Okay. And we're going to brown this together. And it's very cowboy friendly

Yes. And when I moved to the middle of the country, see, I was a vegetarian when I met my husband

Oh, you were. So I kind of had to learn to cook hearty meals that the cowboys would consider fuel

So you cook now every day. This is a working ranch that you and your husband live on

And you cook for your ranch hands, right? Well, I cook for the ranch hands if we have a really big cattle working

But I have four ranch hands of my own that I gave birth to. Oh, what a gorgeous family

I hope I'm going to get to meet them today. They're going to drop by. Oh, good

My husband and my boys are here with me. And I want to meet the man that knocked you off your high heels

He roped my heart. He did. Yeah, he did. He's, uh, I never in a million years thought that I would live in the country

And in fact, um, that's where my little nickname, the Pioneer Woman, came from

I love that. So I'll take care of this. You go on down there and start your sauce

I'm going to start with some canola oil. Uh And a little flour Okay And make a roux This is just better than cracking open the enchilada sauce and pouring it over It just adds a little bit of substance to the sauce

Okay. And then once we let this bubble up for a couple of minutes, we'll pour in some chicken broth, about two cups of chicken broth

Okay. And then we'll just pour in the red sauce, enchilada sauce, any kind of Mexican sauce

Okie doke. Now let me see what you've got. You've got enchilada sauce. Yeah, this is just store-bought enchilada sauce

And you're putting in three cans, right? Three regular-sized cans. Okay. Well, I understand that your story is much like mine and my husband's, that it's very romantical

Yeah, I sort of think of my story as a Harlequin romance meets Green Acres, meets Forrest Gump

Yes. Oh, sweet. Meets The Godfather or something like that. This book, The Pioneer Woman, was on the New York Times bestseller list

How did you get started writing, Marie? All I did was start a blog to share personal stories

I taught myself photography and started posting photos of cows and cowboys

And then I started sharing recipes. And that turned into a cookbook

And then I wrote this little love story about how I met and married my husband

Your story is wonderful. Anytime you share food in conjunction with a story, you know, it adds so much more depth

It does. Especially, and I think, Paula, you and I share a love of butter

So, in that sense. You do? You love butter? Yes, I love butter

I don't judge how much butter I have by how many sticks are in my fridge, but by how many pounds are in my fridge

Yes. You hear me? I hear you, girl. Can I get an amen? Amen, sister

What is this having two sticks of butter in your refrigerator? I've never heard of it

That's like half a day's supply for me. Yeah, I get shaky if I've got less than two pounds

Yeah. All right, Ree, this is done. We need to throw in two cans of green chilies, Polly. Okay

I like this enchilada recipe because there are lots of layers of flavor

We'll add some olives later and some green onions. So you know my mom put them in hers so I do what my mom did Uh This is done and then we going to let the sauce simmer What are we gonna do next And then we going to soften up some tortillas Just kind of

We're not gonna brown them or crisp them. We're just gonna throw them into oil for a few seconds on each side

I love that. You were not bashful with that at all. Oh, no, no, no. All right, so we're going to be softening up these corn tortilla to make our enchiladas

She softened our corn tortilla shells. So put me to work. We've got an assembly line here

Okay. So what we need to do, Polly, is ladle some sauce. Just a ladle full would be fine. Okay

Kind of like if you're doing lasagna. Yeah, just kind of lay the foundation

There you go. Is that enough? A little bit more. I was going to say, I would think it would take about two little ladles

Yeah, that's perfect. Little ladles. And we'll just shake it around and move this over here

Okay, now. Now, we just need to dunk each tortilla into the sauce

Get out. And you do the messy work. And then I'm going to

I would never have thought of this, Ree. I'm going to chop up some. And where do you want me to put them

Like right here? Just right here. Yep. And see, you're ahead of the game. I've still got to chop up my green onions over here

Okay. I like this recipe. Sometimes I use shredded pork instead of beef

Sometimes I use shredded chicken. Sometimes I do three or four different cheeses

Yes. I'm chopping up some black olives. And you can buy the already chopped ones, but I kind of like the texture of doing it yourself

I'm making a mess of your kitchen. I hope you don't hold that against me. No, that's all right

So over here, this is just an assembly. We'll just add some of the meat mixture

Okay. You can start out. Do you want me to roll? Yeah, you can roll, but we've got to load these things

I loaded that a little full. Oh, my gosh. You loaded it perfect. Yeah, I did

And then we'll see how, we'll see if we can get it to close, and then just put it face

down in the sauce. Okay, seam down. Yes. We'll tuck and roll

Tuck and roll. That one better It so nice being in your kitchen Paula

I love you being in my kitchen This is not my typical morning

Do your children get in the kitchen and help you a lot, Rhi

Well, the boys, you know, when they're little, like my boys are, they're 8 and 6

It's almost more work to have them in the kitchen with you So I have to make myself, you know, allow them to come in

But my 11-year-old daughter is very much into cooking. As hard as we work the kids, they're probably going to wind up moving to L.A. and becoming vegetarians

So when they get to be old enough. And be in city slickers. Yes. That's the thing about kids, though

You raise them, and then you just kind of brace yourself and watch what happens

That's right. You want them to become what they want to become. Right, and you don't know whether you've done a good job or a bad job

until it's too late. Until it's too late. What you gonna do about it? Put them back in the womb at 21

I don't think so. That would be painful in many ways. All right

Just ladle a little sauce over the top. Okay. That's perfect. Because we're just gonna bake these for what, 20 minutes

About 20, 25 minutes on 350. Put plenty of cheese on top

Yes, that's what's so good. And see, we've got all this great stuff on the cutting board, and I just sprinkle it all over the top

There you go. That's the great thing about Mexican food. You just kind of scrape everything into the pan and nobody knows the difference

Right, because so many of the dishes, everything's all together. All right, let's eat enchiladas

That sounds good. I sprinkle a lot of cilantro on the enchiladas

I noticed that you did. Ooh, look at that steaming. Because they're so warm and cheesy and rich, and the cilantro just gives them a really good richness

See, and that's the way. Oh, my gosh. Yum, yum. These are fabulous, Rhee

Yay. You little dog. Hey, you're looking a little stingy there, sister

There we go. Put that into me. There we go. There we go. Oh, my goodness

Cheers. Cheers, honey. You can come to my kitchen anytime. I was hungry

Mmm